Does anyone still use an Avo Meter?

kfh:

I have a model 8 Mk5 which I still use occasionally. I acquired it a few years ago with a case of resistors for reading various high amperages. It was a Nato model. I use it occasionally as it sits on the office shelf where it is too large to get lost in the clutter, I have yet to make a battery to fit though. I find that a nice analog reading can be very informative and the digital fake analog readings are just not the same. I have a variety of modern electronic stuff for site work that in many ways are far superior but am not convinced that digital displays are always the best. 

I have an Avo model 40 (similar to the model 8 but with different ranges) which I bought new around 1968. It still works perfectly well though I am not sure about the correctness of the calibration. These Avos used to use a peculiar block-shaped battery which nowadays you will only see in a museum. I obtained a battery holder from Maplin and fitted this and it now works from a size C cell (alias MN1400, LR14, U11 - why so many different size designations, none of which makes any logical sense?) Yes I find a analogue scale much more user-friendly, particularly if you want to follow variations in quantity of current or PD measured. Digital display figures dance around in a meaningless manner. They are very accurate and easy to read when the measured quantity is rock-steady, but difficult to follow a varying quantity.

I spent middle-career in education including a brief (thankfully) period in schools in the mid-1980s. Practically all metering instruments for class training were digital, probably chosen for cheapness as much as anything. I found it very difficult to impart the concept of size of current and potential difference using these instruments. One problem was scale readings shooting off to infinity when there was any disconnection, accidental or otherwise, of the terminals.  I would not like to be a physics teacher nowadays and don't envy those that are.

kfh:

I have a model 8 Mk5 which I still use occasionally. I acquired it a few years ago with a case of resistors for reading various high amperages. It was a Nato model. I use it occasionally as it sits on the office shelf where it is too large to get lost in the clutter, I have yet to make a battery to fit though. I find that a nice analog reading can be very informative and the digital fake analog readings are just not the same. I have a variety of modern electronic stuff for site work that in many ways are far superior but am not convinced that digital displays are always the best. 

I have an Avo model 40 (similar to the model 8 but with different ranges) which I bought new around 1968. It still works perfectly well though I am not sure about the correctness of the calibration. These Avos used to use a peculiar block-shaped battery which nowadays you will only see in a museum. I obtained a battery holder from Maplin and fitted this and it now works from a size C cell (alias MN1400, LR14, U11 - why so many different size designations, none of which makes any logical sense?) Yes I find a analogue scale much more user-friendly, particularly if you want to follow variations in quantity of current or PD measured. Digital display figures dance around in a meaningless manner. They are very accurate and easy to read when the measured quantity is rock-steady, but difficult to follow a varying quantity.

I spent middle-career in education including a brief (thankfully) period in schools in the mid-1980s. Practically all metering instruments for class training were digital, probably chosen for cheapness as much as anything. I found it very difficult to impart the concept of size of current and potential difference using these instruments. One problem was scale readings shooting off to infinity when there was any disconnection, accidental or otherwise, of the terminals.  I would not like to be a physics teacher nowadays and don't envy those that are.